Inside a main body of an indoor apparatus of an air conditioner, a heat exchanger, a fan, and the like are housed. Water drops and dust easily attach to the fan. If the water drops and dust attaching to the fan are left as they are, mold may grow and be scattered in a room targeted for air conditioning together with air sent out into the room targeted for air conditioning by the fan from the indoor apparatus. In addition, if the water drops and dust attaching to the fan are left as they are, an unpleasant odor may be caused.
Therefore, conventionally, the whole of the indoor apparatus mounted on a wall surface of the room targeted for air conditioning is detached from the wall surface and disassembled, and the fan is cleaned.
However, in a case where the fan is cleaned in the above-mentioned manner, it is required to detach the indoor apparatus, mounted on the wall surface, from the wall surface, to disassemble the indoor apparatus, to draw out and clean the fan, to reassemble the indoor apparatus to be in the original state, and to mount the indoor apparatus on the wall. At the heat exchanger housed in the indoor apparatus, a pipe for circulating a refrigerant is fixed. This pipe extends from the indoor apparatus to an outdoor apparatus and is fixed both at the heat exchanger of the indoor apparatus and a heat exchanger of the outdoor apparatus. Therefore, it is difficult to detach from the wall surface the indoor apparatus in which the heat exchanger is housed and to attach the indoor apparatus again on the wall surface after finishing the cleaning.
On the other hand, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 8-5994 (Patent Literature 1) discloses an air conditioner which allows a fan to be detached from the air conditioner while the air conditioner remains mounted on a wall. In this air conditioner, one end of a rotation axis of the fan is supported by a fan motor and the other end thereof is supported by a bearing provided, with the fan interposed therebetween, on a side wall on a side opposed to a side on which the fan motor is located. A distance with which the fan motor and the fan are fitted is smaller than a distance of a clearance between the fan and the side wall. When the fan is detached, fixation screws are first loosened, the fan is thereafter slid in a direction toward a side of the side wall, and the rotation axis and the fan motor of the fan are disengaged. Next, a side of the heat exchanger on the side of the side wall is slightly lifted up, and the fan is drawn out together with the bearing from a clearance between the heat exchanger and the air conditioner main body. In the above-mentioned manner, while the fan motor and an electric component box remain mounted in the air conditioner main body, only the fan can be drawn out, with the air conditioner main body being installed on the wall.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 10-137698 (Patent Literature 2) discloses an indoor apparatus of an air conditioner whose heat exchanger is formed to have a given shape or to be in a given state so as to avoid collision of a fan with a housing and the heat exchanger, occurring when the fan is attached to and detached from the indoor apparatus of the air conditioner, and so as to allow easy attachment and detachment of the fan. In this indoor apparatus, the heat exchanger is formed to be, for example, plate-like and is located so as to cause a long side thereof to be horizontal and a short side to be vertical. In addition, for example, a lower portion of the heat exchanger is curved. In addition, components in front of an attachment and detachment doorway through which the fan passes when attached to and detached from the indoor apparatus, namely, a front panel, a dew drip tray, a louver located in front of an blow-out port, and the like are detached. As described above, the components in front of the attachment and detachment doorway are detached and the shape of the heat exchanger is contrived, thereby allowing the fan to be attached and detached without moving the heat exchanger.
In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 9-273769 (Patent Literature 3), described is a ceiling-mounted cassette type air conditioner in which an blow-out side of a fan casing is divided into a frame main body on a side of an heat exchanger and a blow-out port part detachably attached to the frame main body, with a boundary being a shaft center of a fan, and supporting of the fan is released by detaching the blow-out port part. In this ceiling-mounted cassette type air conditioner, a side plate of a lower end portion of the fan casing is integrated with a blow-out port frame and can be detached from the fan casing.